1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to a calendaring tool and more particularly to a calendaring tool that allows invitees to respond to a meeting request before the system automatically sends out an invitation to all attendees.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, with the advent of the Internet and other communications tools, more businesses rely on computerized calendaring tools to set up both virtual and in-person meetings. One reason for this increased reliance is that the attendees to a meeting can be numerous and scattered around the world. Therefore it is cumbersome to set up these meetings individually and without the use of a computer. In addition, automated and virtual calendaring tools enable information about the meeting to be accurately forwarded to all participants. This is very convenient for the meeting attendees, who can also store this information digitally and use it at the time of the meeting.
Unfortunately, despite calendaring tools that allow for checking of attendees' availability ahead of time, calendars are not always kept accurately. Much time and resources are spent in setting up meetings. Nonetheless, last-minute scheduling conflicts can arise when emergencies cause invitees to change their attendance status at the very last minute. These scheduling challenges create a variety of problems and issues. The first set of problems has to do with scheduling and rescheduling of the calendars so that a first set of attendees deemed to be critical for the meeting can be present. The second set of problem occurs in situations where a quorum of attendees has to be present for the meeting to commence due to particular reasons. In most cases, these problems are resolved either by in-person calling or by sending numerous sets of e-mails and other messages to all participants on a continuous basis. This is an inefficient use of time and resources. In addition, the continuous stream of e-mails causes network and other types of digital clutter, which is difficult to manage both for the invitees and for the originator of the meeting. Notwithstanding all this, any last-minute cancellations or scheduling conflicts create hard-to-resolve difficulties for the originator of the meeting.
Consequently, an improved calendaring tool is needed that can automate the process of scheduling meetings and updating them as needed.